An application domain is a partition in an operating system process where one or more applications reside. Objects in the same application domain communicate directly. Objects in different application domains communicate either by transporting copies of objects across application domain boundaries, or by using a proxy to exchange messages.

MarshalByRefObject is the base class for objects that communicate across application domain boundaries by exchanging messages using a proxy. Objects that do not inherit from MarshalByRefObject are implicitly marshal by value. When a remote application references a marshal by value object, a copy of the object is passed across application domain boundaries.

MarshalByRefObject objects are accessed directly within the boundaries of the local application domain. The first time an application in a remote application domain accesses a MarshalByRefObject, a proxy is passed to the remote application. Subsequent calls on the proxy are marshaled back to the object residing in the local application domain.

Types must inherit from MarshalByRefObject when the type is used across application domain boundaries, and the state of the object must not be copied because the members of the object are not usable outside the application domain where they were created.

This section contains two code examples. The first code example shows how to create an instance of a class in another application domain. The second code example shows a simple class that can be used for remoting.

Example 1

The following code example shows the simplest way to execute code in another application domain. The example defines a class named Worker that inherits MarshalByRefObject, with a method that displays the name of the application domain in which it is executing. The example creates instances of Worker in the default application domain and in a new application domain.

Note

The assembly that contains Worker must be loaded into both application domains, but it could load other assemblies that would exist only in the new application domain.